Creating Effective Online Lessons.

Something


About creating online lessons.

Students at the Center Symposium Interview: Eric Toshalis

Giving Feedback on writing

Communities of Practice - Etienne Wenger

Hack your schooling and other videos

Hack your schooling

Digital Leadership - Mark Anderson

Digital leadership matters from Mark Anderson

Reflection and Evidence for PTC1

I have been thinking how I engage in an ethical and respectful manner with my colleagues, principals and teachers I work with, as well as members of the wider Education community. In my team we work in a collaborative and professional manner in preparing and delivering workshops or courses. We have regular fortnightly meeting where we connect with each other and share our knowledge.
Collaboration is at the heart of what we do as a team and this has been a new way of working for me but one that I see as being a better way of working to share ideas and use different team members' strengths.

I also work closely with principals and teachers in my work as a facilitator to develop a professional development plan for the year based on the school goals, as well planning and delivering professional development workshops. It is vital to build those respectful relationships and trust with teachers
as this is more likely to mean that akonga will feel respected and more willing to learn/actively engage with new learning (Professional development). I believe I work effectively in a professional manner with school leaders to achieve their school goals. Again this also involves building relationships, actively listening and working collaboratively to co-constuct a development plan for the school. One aspect that has changed in my practice is realising that not all schools will change or move at the same pace on their digital journey. This can be for many reasons, but one of the keys is treating the school and the staff as individuals. After reading the OECD report the Nature of Learning and looking at the 7 principals of Learning I realise that recognising individual differences is important to how schools may look at professional development with our team. While there is a sense of urgency to make a difference for learners in classes, it is also important to meet teachers where they are at in their learning journey.

From my work last year in clusters I learnt that knowing the learner was just as important with teachers as with students. Following UDL principles, this has led me to change my practice. I now send out a Pre-workshop/School visit survey. This allows me to find out about my akonga before I meet them. I always start my first meeting sharing information about myself and my family to start making connections with the teachers. I also communicate via email (see below) to keep those connections building. A good example is the relationship  I have built with a teacher in Southland this year. On my most recent visit to her class we spent time working on her class blog and problem- solving to make sure her learners could use the technology to record their learning.

As part of my professional work I am involved in the online learning community. I am on Twitter, take part in Twitter chats, write a Professional Learning Blog , a blog for a Community of Practice plus I am involved in Educamps. These are all ways that I build my personal and professional relationships, both on-line and F2F (face-to-face). This creation of a PLN is also a  way of building my professional knowledge and sharing that knowledge via those networks.


Link to Tātaiako : Whanaungatanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC 2DF

The Nature of Learning - OECD report
- I read this booklet at the end of last year and I started to think about
students I had taught .  The book highlights 7 key principles of learning.

1. Learners at the centre - self directed learners
2. The social nature of learning - co-operative/collaborative learning
3. Emotions are integral to learning - positive beliefs of self as learner
4. Recognizing individual differences -prior knowledge important, 
5. Stretching all student- programmes that demand hard work and challenge
6. Assessment for learning - clarity of expectations
7. Building horizontal connections- community-global

The key take away is for me is to start thinking about the all  learners being at the centre, it's not about the teacher being the "sage on the stage".  And that as teachers we need to ensure that the 

conditions in our classes will help all learners achieve to their potential. The poster below says it 

all. We just can't expect to turn up and teach the same way we have for 20 years.

21st Century learners need 21st century teaching and  learning environments, "we need to redesign learning environments that harness the potential of digital technologies in a knowledge-based economy to develop 21st century learning competencies for our learners."  Nature of Learning 

Another concept that has made me reflect on what and how I teach is  UDL- Universal Design for Learning. Both colleagues Chrissie Butler and Lynne Silcock have presented workshops at team Hui and have shared ways we can use these principals in working with akonga. For me the image below

says it all. We need to teach to include those at the edges, not just the ones in the middle.  

This concept has changed my practice in two ways. I have changed how I prepare for my workshops-

I will send out a pre-workshop survey, send an outline of the day by email, participants are shared in to the presentation at the start of the day, videos are enabled to have subtitles, there are handouts for those who prefer a paper copy, seating is flexible.

When talking to teachers about their students,  I am aware of the impact of UDL and how making some small changes can make a difference to students and their learning. In a recent conversation with a teacher, she told me about a student who found verbal instructions a challenge. I suggested she print out a copy of the instructions so the student could have a paper copy to refer to. And why not print out another larger copy and put on the wall  for any other student that might find reading or re-reading the instructions useful.  While it seems obvious to me now, I know that many teachers do not

think about this aspect with regard to their students. This is one concept that we share in our work with schools

Link to Tātaiako : Manaakitanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC 3 F

There are many ways I am using Te Reo and Tikanga in my practice and work with my colleagues.
At the start and end of our team meetings we say Karakia to settle us into our mahi. This is also how we begin our workshops.  Singing Waiata is also part of the culture of our workplace, at a Mihi Whakatau or to welcome visitors.






 Example of Karakia used for beginning a workshop.

Link to a recent workshop at a school   Karakia,  Whakatoki,  Kaupapa for the day

When I first joined CORE,  I was able to say my pepeha at my Mihi whakatau. Although I have
Stage 1 Maori in my degree, like any language you need to be using it to sustain it.  We have Te Reo sessions in our office once a week to help us grow our language knowledge.

A recent blog post by Andrew Penny, one of our CORE colleagues also made me reflect on how as Pakeha, I need to keep up-skilling in Te Reo. I think the more people who use Te Reo  and become more familiar and comfortable with Tikanga, it will become part of what we do in New Zealand.
As a teacher/facilitator, if I continue to model this for the teachers I work with and students I also see in class  I believe it can only help Maori students at school to feel their language and culture is valued.

Link to Tātaiako :Tangata Whenuatanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC4 F A THIS ONE Prof Learning

Over the last 7/8 years I have been able to be involved in a wide variety of Professional Development about teaching and learning involving digital technology. I have attended CORE Education breakfasts, Educational Conferences both in New Zealand (U Learn and NZATE) and Australia (Edutech).  I have also been involved inTeacher-led Educamps, teacher-led eduignite evenings,  attended many different workshops, am active on Twitter and have a wide PLN. I am also the co- founder of the Christchurch Connected Educator Group. In 2013 I was selected as a CORE -Ed e-Fellow which enabled me to grow my knowledge and develop my inquiry on using digital technology. This opportunity also meant I was able to continue to be involved in a variety of professional learning opportunities. Working at Christ's College in 2014 also allowed me to keep building my personal professional knowledge and skills by attending Edutech and other workshops with speakers such as Steve Wheeler and Abdul Chohan among many others. I created a 
school blog to share resources and ideas with teaching staff.  I have also attended TEDxChristchurch for the last two years and plan to do so again this year.

I have always been someone who has initiated learning opportunities and believe that PD is absolutely critical - however I don't mean the "one size fits all Thursday afternoon PD"  Although I have attended numerous staff PD sessions, I have not been inspired , provoked, wowed, had my thinking expanded etc etc as I have at some of the wonderful workshops I have attended.
Over the past few years I have had a chance to meet or at least listen to some of my Education Heroes - Sir Ken Robinson, Sugata Mitra, Ewan McIntosh , Kevin Honeycutt and to be inspired by many others.  

So why is self-directed PD beneficial to teachers? It is about striving to find new knowledge that
makes sense to you, answers your questions, solves a problem and it is also about teachers making connections and moving outside their classroom door.  It may only be  A Saturday morning to attend
an Educamp or a Sunday morning to listen to Michael Fullan.  Perhaps it is reading a book written about teaching and learning that inspires a teacher, what ever it is sometimes that inspiration is all that is needed to make a change and that is the key. "Change is not hard. it is uncomfortable"  Grant Lichtman.  Changing how we teach and what we teach is what we need to be doing, if we are preparing our students for their future.

This year my Professional Learning and Inquiry is about Secondary Schools and ILE, in particular how schools are making these changes/factors for success. I am part of a group of facilitators who are
Secondary teachers/working in Secondary Schools who are curating resources/success stories to help us in our work. This is an area where change is very uncomfortable for teachers, for a variety of reasons.

Another area where I have been involved in professional learning opportunities within the learning community is with the Connected Educator Network. We organise events, publish our blog and
for the past two year have run 31 days of blogging encouraging teachers to share a little of what is happening in their classroom.

While running Professional Development and working with teachers in Southland, South Canterbury and Christchurch is the main focus for my work, I believe that being connected and part of the learning community is also vitally important to share ideas and practice, as well as supporting teachers as they negotiate the new educational landscape.

Tātaiako Link: Ako

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Reflection and Evidence for PTC 5 Leadership FINAL

How do I show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning?

I am a committed, lifelong learner who enjoys learning new things and challenging myself. Through writing blogs and also being involved in the e-Learning Community, I am able to share my knowledge about e-Learning. I am passionate about teaching and learning. I believe that a collaborative approach shares the knowledge and allows teacher and students to work together, to start to think deeply about learning. By being involved in a wide variety of activities in the professional learning community
I am able share practice and also support and encourage teachers. This has enabled me to build a wide PLN which in turn encourages and supports me.
In my work as a facilitator, I also show leadership in working with teachers, SLT and colleagues to develop a professional development programme that meets the needs of the school, the teachers and learners. Examples of this leadership would be co-constructing a development plan
and running workshops around the objectives in that plan. For example running a staff meeting to enable staff to complete the ELPF (e-learning framework) survey. Another example is running a workshop for staff on the Spirals of inquiry. I believe that building relationships is crucial if I am going to make an impact on teaching and learning. A good example is a new entrant teacher who was reluctant to use IT in her class but now has a class blog and her students are using Book Creator to record their learning. See email below.

Another example of my leadership is my support for a first time Principal making some changes in her school. I have been in to  work with staff and the eleader. The teachers are now creating class blogs and sharing the students' learning on those blogs.

One challenge that I have is walking the line between what I do working for CORE and my participation in the wider learning community. I have sometimes not contributed to a Twitter chat if the topic is related to my work a a facilitator. However, most of the time the two areas
blend together, I think it is everyone working together, sharing ideas and practice as we all work to make a difference for our learners. For me that is the bottom line.

Here are examples of my leadership in the learning community.
Attendee and Presenter NZATE Conferences
Attendee and Presenter ULearn 2013, 2015 ( My Edtalk)
Attendee and Facilitator at Educamps  - Faciliator/Co-organiser 2011 -2016
Attendee and presenter at Eduignite and Teachmeet opportunities
Active on Twitter  and contributor to Twitter Chats
2013 CORE e-Fellow  - My Edtalk
Creator and blogger for Christ's College Teaching and Learning Blog
Co-founder and blogger for Christchurch Connected Educators
Co-facilitator 31 Days of blogging 2014 &2015
Presenter Enable courses

Tātaiako Link: Wānanga

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Reflection and Evidence for PTC6 FINAL DONE

In my work, I am working in a range of schools, working with Principals, e-leaders and staff. The learning programme I plan and deliver is based on information obtained from initial conversations with the Principal, targets and goals from the annual plan/charter and also based on moving the school forward. Leading change within the school is how we will make a difference for learners.

I work with schools to co-construct the development plan, a road map for how we will work together through the year.

No one school is the same although there may be similar themes which has allowed me to plan and deliver workshops to e-leaders from different schools. In 2015, schools in Southland were in informal clusters, in 2016 the work is in individual schools but there is still the opportunity for e-leaders to share their practice. A good example is where three teachers from three different schools worked together to develop a a class blog for their Yr5/6 classes. This is the blog post from the Connected Educators Blog.

Three concepts have impacted on my thinking in planning and implementing development plans/workshops for schools I am working with.

The first is UDL or Universal design for Learning. I have talked about the impact of this concept in this blogpost. This has caused me to plan in a different way for workshops and to find out about my learners before they come to the workshops.

The Spirals of Inquiry Process adapted by Kaiser,Halbert and Timperly has also influenced how I talk about inquiry with teachers. This is a robust model and leads teachers to look at their learners and data in a deeper way. example of a workshop
The last ideas are from the OECD report - The Nature of Learning which talks about the Learner at the Centre. Again this has influenced how I think about leading change and making a difference for learners in our schools. Students in classes today are not the same as they were 20yrs ago

Teaching and Learning is changing.and learners need to have more choice, more voice and more self -direction in their classrooms. I see my job as leading, encouraging, coaching and informing
teachers to change.

Link to Tātaiako ; ako

Reflection and Evidence for PTC7

Developing and building an inclusive, supportive learning environment is vital in any classroom,whether it is  a brand new Yr9 English class, an Enable course with a group of teachers from a a variety of schools or a group of e-Leaders from the same school. The most important aspect is to build relationships and make connections. It is vital to create a feeling of whanaungatanga . I have found using technology can help with that, but taking the time to build relationships on a personal level is the most powerful.

Using pre-workshop or pre-visit survey is a successful way to make initial contact with teachers to find out

something about them - their needs/expectations/skills/teaching/interests. Using a Google Form is a very easy way and a great tool teachers can use with their own classes. These have helped me in my planning to ensure that my learners' needs/expectations are being met.
From my work last year in clusters I learnt that knowing the learner was just as important with teachers as with students. Following UDL principles, this has led me to change my practice.  This allows me to find out about my akonga before I meet them. I always start my first meeting sharing information about myself and my family to start making connections with the teachers. I also communicate via email (see below) to keep those connections building. A good example is the relationship  I have built with a teacher in Southland this year. On my most recent visit to her class we spent time working on her class blog and problem- solving to make sure her learners could use the technology to record their learning.

Using UDL principles also helps me plan my workshops so that learners differing needs are met. Sending out an outline of the workshop, any pre-reading, any videos that may be useful to watch before  the  workshop, having printed copies of important notes, sharing the presentation and resources for "re-windable" learning.
I use Twitter and my Professional Learning Blog to support and build my professional competence and also build relationships. I have been to schools where teachers have said "I follow you on Twitter" or met teachers F2F who I have communicated with via Twitter. Creating a group/school hashtag and sharing ideas/practice can also build/strengthen connections.
One way I have changed my practice is using the pre-workshop/visit survey data and the workshop evaluation data to tailor the next workshop/visit to the needs of my learners.
And a kaputī and kai are also important  ingredients for creating whanaungatanga.

Link to Tātaiako: Manaakitanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC8 FI

As a teacher, I see myself as a life-long learner. This is reflected in my on-going

Professional Learning both Formal and Informal, personal and in a wider forum.

As I gain new knowledge I ask myself questions - is this relevant to me? Will this make a difference to learners? And because I have a Secondary Lens on much of my work - what would this look like in a Secondary classroom? What would this look like in my classroom?

My inquiry focus this year is still based in the Secondary School area - looking at how I can support Sec School Teachers moving into ILE.

A large amount of the work I do is sharing new concepts/research/information with teachers I ma working with. Leading change requires teachers to be a little uncomfortable in their spaces.

"Change is not hard, it is uncomfortable" Grant Lichtman. I have used my own new learning to share ideas/research with teachers to move them in those uncomfortable spaces.

Videos such as Sir Ken Robinson's "Do schools kill creativity?" "the three carriage train" and "The power of student driven learning" have resonated with teachers.

Other examples of new information/knowledge I have shared with teachers include the
Spirals of Inquiry, The Nature of Learning ,Story Hui and Using Student Voice and Choice.

Being involved in writing/co-constructing a Literacy Enable course and a module for an Empower course has also been a way for me to continue learning and share that knowledge with course participants. eg using information from enabling e-learning, Literacy online, TKI, VLN, CLA website and assessment online.

Using goal sheets for teachers and also getting feedback has allowed me to encourage teachers to

get into that uncomfortable space to try something new, reflect and then share with colleagues.

Reflection and Evidence for PTC 9F

Using a UDL approach and thinking about the 7 principals of learning, has helped me to put my learners at the centre. While it is important for me to deliver the content/ideas/concepts required in a workshop, it is even more important that I find out about the needs of the learners.

To do this I surveyed participants survey workshop beforehand and also send them an outline of the day as some people like to see the overall picture and pre-read material. I also use Te Reo in introductions as well as the karakia and whakatoki we might use for that day

A UDL approach is used by having digtal and print information. I continue to build my knowledge of the UDL approach via workshops with Lynne Silcock and Chrissie Butler. By increasing my knowledge, I can model this approach for my eleaders .

Example of workshop to e-leaders on UDL   Participants have multiple ways of
accessing the presentation - shortened url, link/outline emailed to them or QR code.

Tangata Whenuatanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC10F

Reflection and Evidence

I have been involved in supporting Maori students in a variety of ways. I have use Te Reo in my classroom with greetings and other phrases where appropriate. I have been to many Powhiri for new Year 9 students and new staff. At Burnside I had a long involvement in a small steering group focused on the Maori students at our school. This group morphed into the  He Kakano group, where I was also a member. While at Burnside High I also took an after school class in Te Reo. My successful delivery of my pepeha is recorded in this blog post.

The cabbage trees at Burnside High are a significant group of trees. They also became significant for my Yr 9 English class in 2013. Our class blog was called Ti Kouka -Directions for Learning . We took photos for our class wall at the cabbage trees. Our final class task was to join history, culture and technology together by creating a QR Code that linked to a video about the cabbage trees.

I have continued to work on my knowledge of Tikanga and Reo. Some examples are:

Preparation and use of my pepeha when first meeting with school leaders etc.

Joining in karakia and waiata at CORE and LwDT South team hui.

Taking opportunity to leading Karakia in team meetings.

Use of karakaia and Whakatoki in presentations.

Consulting with colleagues about appropriate Māori language/concepts, l  eg questions at lunchtime meetings and informal conversations

Attendance at CORE Te Reo lunchtime learning desire to learn Te Reo and keep learning

To sum up this reflection is an extract from my blog

"As a staff we have also been involved in using Te Reo in our classrooms. One way is by using Whakatauki or proverbs. I enjoy using the words of people I believe to have something worthwhile to convey. Here is my pick for this week – It conveys the idea of the importance of language. The language of Te Reo and also my subject, English.

Ko te reo te tuakiri

Ko te reo tōku ahurei

Ko te reo te ora.

Language is my identity.

Language is my uniqueness.

Language is life."

Link to Tātaiako -Tangata Whenuatanga

Reflection and Evidence for PTC11F

In my work in schools I have been involved in working with Principals to gather data about the e-learning capabilities of their school through the use of the elpf - elearning planning framework tool. The information is collected from staff via an online survey. The results are available online and are displayed in graphic form. I have led staff through this process in several schools this year, with a short presentation before they have completed the survey.

After recording and analysing the results, I have worked with Principals to look at priorities for the Professional Development.

A more informal way of gathering information about teacher views/elearning needs is by using feedback tools eg google forms to gather opinions/feedback . I have found this a very useful activity, I have found out about my learners before I meet them and then using a feedback form after a workshop, I am able to make changes to the next workshop based on that feedback.

While we are not directly involved in gathering student data, teachers involved in the Spirals of Inquiry (Halbert, Kaiser and Timperly) are encouraged to gather data about target students from several sources and take a wide view of learning.

 Learner Maps

Link to Tātaiako:  Wänanga